Egypt provides fertile territory for ME architects

Orlando Crowcroft , May 11th, 2010

It will not have come as a surprise to many in the Middle East that Egypt needs housing for its growing middle class.

A report by consultancy New Look, published in April, put the demand at two million new homes by 2015, as young Egyptian families seek affordable housing in a market saturated by luxury apartments. The country’s real estate market grew by 3.7% in 2009.

And it is not just in the residential sector where there is money to be made for developers.

Tourism, Egypt’s major cash cow, only suffered minimal declines in 2009 despite the global recession. The country needs hotels, resorts and tourist infrastructure, and Egypt’s government is welcoming ambitious schemes with open arms.

UAE developer Emaar has been taking advantage of Egypt’s new ambition for some time now. The firm’s 2.2 million m2 Sheikh Khalifa city – paid for by a US$100 million grant from Abu Dhabi and including schools, shops, mosques and thousands of homes – is one of four major developments that it is undertaking in Egypt.

Architects too are making their mark, Zaha Hadid recently unveiled plans for a 50,000m2 conference center in downtown Cairo, while Godwin Austen Johnson are involved in two massive tourism developments on Egypt’s coast in Sharm Al Sheikh.

“They have the money now, and the ambition,” explained Hisham Youssef, a Dubai-based architect with Gensler.

GAJ’s two projects in Egypt are in their very early stages, but the sheer size of both illustrate that the Egyptian government are serious about developing their coastline for tourists. The firm’s 7.5 million m2 mixed-use development in Sharm Al Sheikh – which will include 42,000 residential units and five hotels – are dwarfed by an even bigger project in Soma Bay, which will include 72,000 residential units and a staggering 58 new hotels.

Ricus Van Zyl, associate partner at GAJ architects, says the willingness on the part of the government to allow developers to build quickly and easily is a major advantage of working in Egypt.

“It’s easy to work in Egypt in terms of restrictions. From what we have experienced the mission in Dubai to get your building permit approved is always a huge challenge with Dubai municipality, there is none of this in Egypt,” Van Zyl said.

But while both the government and developers welcome new projects, construction in Egypt takes time.

The estimated completion dates of both GAJ’s projects could be more effectively counted in decades rather than years, and this is not only due to their size. Van Zyl explains that unlike in the UAE, working in Egypt tends to require a ‘hands on’ approach to management.

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“In Dubai you always guaranteed to have a project manager on from day one, and he seems to know what the design brief is and what instructions the architect requires to do the design,” he explained.

“But in Egypt the project manager is almost just the facilitator and the architect has to bring all the ideas to the client. We have to write the brief, draw up the design and then check that the project is what client wants. It takes a long time. What you normally do in Dubai in six months will take you 12 months there. It is a very, very slow process.”

Despite this, UAE’s Youssef explains that attitudes are changing in Egypt towards quality design, something that may have been lacking some years ago. Developers are keener to pay for foreign talent than they were in the past, and the results are promising.

“There’s an increased appreciation of good design and good planning in Egypt now. A lot of developers are engaging the services of foreign consultants and designers, and there is a feeling that there is a need to bring in good, experienced designers,” he said.

Youssef does point out, however, that foreign consultants have to be aware that designs that may look good on paper can often not be followed through in Egypt. “They have to be aware of what the construction industry there is capable of,” he said.

Another consideration, he points out, is that Egyptian clients tend to want to take an active role in design. Architects that are too precious about their designs may find a different culture than they are used to in other areas of the region.

“It’s the culture in Egypt that the client says do it and you don’t push back,” he said.

But despite these challenges, both Van Zyl and Youssef are optimistic that as Egypt continues to be home to new projects and ambitious design, both attitudes and ability in the country will change.

“There is a lot of really big stuff going on in Egypt,” Van Zyl said. “There is real ambition.”

Citystars
Architect: Godwin Austen Johnson
Site: 7.5 million m²
Location: Sharm El Sheikh

This massive hotel and apartment complex on Egypt’s coast includes four hotels, manmade lagoons, a gold course and what is expected to be the largest swimming pool in the world. Hotels based on the lagoons have their own quays and water access and the site will be served by its very own sustainable transport network. The site will also feature a tennis academy, schools a recreation center and staff quarters. The Citystars development is set to be an incredible feat of engineering, with water from the lagoons sourced from deep wells rather than the sea.

Stone Towers, Cairo
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Site: 170,000 m²
Location: Cairo

Stone Towers is an office, hotel and retail development in central Cairo, which gets its name from an ancient petrified tree in the center of the site. A total of 525,000m2 of building area will include state-of-the-art offices, food and beverage outlets and a five star hotel. The stone structures were designed to imitate the complexity of ancient Egyptian architecture, and the patterns of Hieroglyphic characters. The towers, which differ from each other in size and shape, are set around a series of ponds, walkways and paths.